The Governor’s Wife, by Amaka Azie
Book: The Governor’s Wife, 2018 Kindle Edition, 319 pages
Author: Amaka Azie
Book Review by: Eileen Omosa
Would you marry to please your parents, or walk away and marry the love of your life? What if either choice involves making a sacrifice?
In The Governor’s Wife, Amaka uses the characters of Ogonna Moneke and Philip Adamu to ask a question that anyone given a second chance in romance needs to answer - can love and forgiveness overcome lies and deceptions? What does it take for former lovers to trust each other and embark on a future they had once dreamt of?
What issues in the book held my attention?
The author’s vivid description of the setting and use of local dialect without need for translation transported me to Nigeria without the necessary flight time. The introduction and befitting descriptions of each character helped transform the book characters into people I have encountered - at a university, in a city, at an office, restaurant, and family homes during happy and sad moments.
The author used suspense successfully - captured my attention, the reason I kept opening the next page, eager to establish what happens next, until the climax where answers to the many questions in the book emerge. I read the book in two afternoons.
The author shares insights into what it takes when Ogonna, a representative of many girls in Africa, is ready to get married. The extent to which she takes part in the choice of a marriage partner.
The assumptions individuals make whenever they cannot receive a convincing explanation for events that happen to them. For example, what Phillip thinks when the woman who steps into his office is none other than Ogonna: “Seven years earlier, the gold digger had kicked him to the curb to marry a wealthy politician. Now she needs him, more like needs his property. Vowing not to rent her so much as a doghouse, Philip shows Ogonna the door.”
Emerging questions
What role do parents play in the creation of happiness or sadness of their children?
Can an individual lead a successful life if they were to ignore family and society?
How free are individuals to marry a partner of choice? What role do parents play, and with what results?
Do parents have control over their decisions and actions, or are they society’s creation, which they must obey to exist as social beings?
What happens when one’s heart is split between punishing and wining the other? As the authour asks, “But can Philip resist the feelings he’s denied for so long when he sees Ogonna flirting with a rival developer?”
What does it take for a woman or man to escape from an abusive relationship?
What was the last book you read, and each time wanted to pull a character out of the book, shake them while asking why they have refused to see what you see?
I found The Governor’s Wife informative while entertaining. I would recommend the book to anyone searching to understand issues of gender relations, examples of underlying factors in decisions made by individuals and families.
Thank you for visiting my website and reading my book reviews. I endeavour to write book reviews for books with a message that captures my attention, triggers questions on our social being. I will appreciate if you recommend books for me to read and review.
@EileenOmosa